Review: Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure

Title: Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure
Author: Courtney Milan
Series: Worth Saga #2.5
Genre: F/F Historical Romance
Length: Novella
Available: Now

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Mrs. Bertrice Martin—a widow, some seventy-three years young—has kept her youthful-ish appearance with the most powerful of home remedies: daily doses of spite, regular baths in man-tears, and refusing to give so much as a single damn about her Terrible Nephew.

Then proper, correct Miss Violetta Beauchamps, a sprightly young thing of five and sixty, crashes into her life. The Terrible Nephew is living in her rooming house, and Violetta wants him gone.

Mrs. Martin isn’t about to start giving damns, not even for someone as intriguing as Miss Violetta. But she hatches another plan—to make her nephew sorry, to make Miss Violetta smile, and to have the finest adventure of all time.

If she makes Terrible Men angry and wins the hand of a lovely lady in the process? Those are just added bonuses.

Author’s Note: Sometimes I write villains who are subtle and nuanced. This is not one of those times. The Terrible Nephew is terrible, and terrible things happen to him because he deserves them. Sometime villains really are bad and wrong, and sometimes, we want them to suffer a lot of consequences.

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Review: In the Vanisher’s Palace

Title: In the Vanisher’s Palace
Author: Aliette de Bodard
Series: – –
Genre: Sci-Fi Romance
Length: Short novel
Available: Now

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From the award-winning author of the Dominion of the Fallen series comes a dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

In a ruined, devastated world, where the earth is poisoned and beings of nightmares roam the land…

A woman, betrayed, terrified, sold into indenture to pay her village’s debts and struggling to survive in a spirit world.

A dragon, among the last of her kind, cold and aloof but desperately trying to make a difference.

When failed scholar Yên is sold to Vu Côn, one of the last dragons walking the earth, she expects to be tortured or killed for Vu Côn’s amusement.

But Vu Côn, it turns out, has a use for Yên: she needs a scholar to tutor her two unruly children. She takes Yên back to her home, a vast, vertiginous palace-prison where every door can lead to death. Vu Côn seems stern and unbending, but as the days pass Yên comes to see her kinder and caring side. She finds herself dangerously attracted to the dragon who is her master and jailer. In the end, Yên will have to decide where her own happiness lies—and whether it will survive the revelation of Vu Côn’s dark, unspeakable secrets…

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Review: Love’s Verdict

Title: Love’s Verdict
Author: Carsen Taite
Series: – –
Genre: F/F Contemporary
Length: Novel
Available: Now

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Attorneys Landon Holt and Carly Pachett want the exact same thing: the only open partnership spot at their prestigious criminal defense firm. When Landon and Carly are forced to collaborate on the defense of one of the firms A-list celebrity clients in a high-profile murder case, theres no question the assignment is a test to see which one of them will get the promotion. Fierce determination to stand out fuels the already heated rivalry between them, but all those late nights working on legal strategy also fan the flames of attraction. When it comes to the verdict, will they compromise their careers for love?

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Review: The Gift of Your Love

Title: The Gift of Your Love
Author: Kayla Bashe
Series: – –
Genre: F/F Fantasy
Length: Novella
Available: Now

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Neely has always been able to see things—the details others miss, flashes of color that tell her how people feel, and more. She’s been called everything from witch to psychic to freak. But a lifetime of seeing what the rest of the world misses still didn’t prepare her for being taken hostage mid-escape by a man with tentacles.

And it definitely didn’t prepare her for the intriguing woman who comes to her rescue.

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Review: The Queen of Ieflaria

Title: The Queen of Ieflaria
Author: Effie Calvin
Series: Tales of Inthya #1
Genre: F/F Fantasy Romance
Length: Novel
Available: 19th Feb

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Princess Esofi of Rhodia and Crown Prince Albion of Ieflaria have been betrothed since they were children but have never met. At age seventeen, Esofi’s journey to Ieflaria is not for the wedding she always expected but instead to offer condolences on the death of her would-be husband.

But Ieflaria is desperately in need of help from Rhodia for their dragon problem, so Esofi is offered a new betrothal to Prince Albion’s younger sister, the new Crown Princess Adale. But Adale has no plans of taking the throne, leaving Esofi with more to battle than fire-breathing beasts.

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Review: Rogue Acts

Title: Rogue Acts
Authors: Molly O’Keefe, Ainsley Booth, Andie J. Christopher, Olivia Dade, Ruby Lang, Stacey Agdeen and Jamie Lee Blair
Contents: 7 novellas
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Available: Now

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When resistance turns to action, love always wins. Seven new romances for readers who love as hard as they believe. 

Make You Mine by Molly O’Keefe 
Jay Schulman has come to his breaking point and he has a choice to make: walk away from his best friend and love of his life. Or take a chance and make her his. 

Personal Audition by Ainsley Booth 
Camilla’s living on her ex’s couch, working a few more weeks on a contract before she can leave the city and head west to pursue her comedy dreams. Elizabeth is the last woman she’d expect to get tangled up over—so what harm is a one-night stand? Or a second date? 

Brand New Bike by Andie J. Christopher 
Jake Lieberman is incensed that billionaire Michael Garcia is going to join the president’s council on technology. But when the tech mogul unexpectedly agrees to defend himself on Jake’s podcast, sparks fly and the two men decide to team up inside the bedroom–and possibly out. 

Cover Me by Olivia Dade 
Elizabeth Stone has no health insurance. No savings. No one to turn to when she finds a lump on her breast…except James Magnusson. Even during his doomed first marriage, James considered Elizabeth a special friend—one he had to keep at a safe distance. Now he’s free, and she needs him…but will they finally have the chance to be together, only to have everything torn apart? 

The Long Run by Ruby Lang 
A Harlem stalwart is reluctantly drawn to the cheeky gentrifier who moves in across the hall, but can she forgive his opposition to her bid for a space in the building? 

Never Again by Stacey Agdern 
Actor Sam Moskowitz has an overdeveloped sense of social justice and strong feelings for preschool teacher Deb Taubman. Deb adores Sam but doesn’t trust him (or their chemistry) enough to let him into her life. In the wake of anti-Semitic attacks, they’re drawn closer together, but will their newfound closeness be shattered when the secret he’s been keeping is revealed? 

His Neighbor’s Education by Jane Lee Blair 
1 rookie charter school teacher + 1 veteran public school teacher + an unexpected attraction and a shared alley: can it equal true love?

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Review: Hamilton’s Battalion

Title: Hamilton’s Battalion
Authors: Rose Lerner, Courtney Milan, Alyssa Cole
Genre: LGBTQ+ Historical Romance
Contents: 3 novellas
Available: Now

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Love in the time of Hamilton…

On October 14, 1781, Alexander Hamilton led a daring assault on Yorktown’s defenses and won a decisive victory in America’s fight for independence. Decades later, when Eliza Hamilton collected his soldiers’ stories, she discovered that while the war was won at Yorktown, the battle for love took place on many fronts…

PROMISED LAND by Rose Lerner

Donning men’s clothing, Rachel left her life behind to fight the British as Corporal Ezra Jacobs–but life catches up with a vengeance when she arrests an old love as a Loyalist spy.

At first she thinks Nathan Mendelson hasn’t changed one bit: he’s annoying, he talks too much, he sticks his handsome nose where it doesn’t belong, and he’s self-righteously indignant just because Rachel might have faked her own death a little. She’ll be lucky if he doesn’t spill her secret to the entire Continental Army.

Then Nathan shares a secret of his own, one that changes everything…

THE PURSUIT OF… by Courtney Milan

What do a Black American soldier, invalided out at Yorktown, and a British officer who deserted his post have in common? Quite a bit, actually.

* They attempted to kill each other the first time they met.
* They’re liable to try again at some point in the five-hundred mile journey that they’re inexplicably sharing.
* They are not falling in love with each other.
* They are not falling in love with each other.
* They are…. Oh, no.

THAT COULD BE ENOUGH by Alyssa Cole

Mercy Alston knows the best thing to do with pesky feelings like “love” and “hope”: avoid them at all cost. Serving as a maid to Eliza Hamilton, and an assistant in the woman’s stubborn desire to preserve her late husband’s legacy, has driven that point home for Mercy—as have her own previous heartbreaks.

When Andromeda Stiel shows up at Hamilton Grange for an interview in her grandfather’s stead, Mercy’s resolution to live a quiet, pain-free life is tested by the beautiful, flirtatious, and entirely overwhelming dressmaker.

Andromeda has staid Mercy reconsidering her worldview, but neither is prepared for love—or for what happens when it’s not enough.

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Review: Heart of Steel

Title: Heart of Steel
Authors: Cora Walker, Avery Stiles, Christina DZA Marie, TS Porter, Heather Morris, B.A. Huntley, Helena Maeve
Genre: LGBTQ+ Fantasy Romance
Contents: 7 novellas
Available: Now

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Everyone loves the stories of knights: chivalry, bravery, loyalty, love gained, lost, unrequited and timeless. Daring feats, epic quests, bloody wars, and more…

The Queen’s Dragon Rider by Cora Walker—Tessandra dreamed of being the first woman in her family to join the Legion of the Bold. But that promising career in the Legion was dashed when the riderless dragon Merryn selected Tess, much to her disappointment. Now joining the queen’s service, though not in the capacity she expected, Tess is about to begin her first mission—and it’s already shaping up to be full of peril.

The Silent Knight by Avery Stiles—As a courier, Loran has always worked alone, but her latest delivery comes with a companion: a mute knight without a name. The strange knight at first seems more hindrance than help—especially after they insist on saving the life of a brigand Loran would have preferred dead.

To Tame a Dragon by Christina DZA Marie—The Septimoan Law of War states, “No woman shall ever bear arms for king and country. Should she participate in war, her only acceptable role is that of nurse.” But Floriane has no patience or time for such a law—especially once she finds herself right in the middle of a war.

Blackberries and Buckthorn by TS Porter—Ser Isolde has been tasked with the underwhelming duty of escorting young Lady Siofra home from her sorceress’ training. She has better things to do with her time than babysit a silly girl, but at least the matter will be simple and quickly over…

The Heartless Knight by Heather Morris—Long a part of Prince Tom’s inner circle, and newly knighted, still Isi is a man eternally out of place. Once a slave, always a foreigner, and that’s only the start of what makes him odd to most. Confusing feelings for Tom do not remotely help.

Ser Rae of Del by B.A. Huntley—The king is dead, and Rae finds herself dragged right into the heart of politics when her lover, the queen, orders her to find a rumored bastard child and bring them back at any cost.

A Shieldmaiden’s Vow by Helena Maeve—Setting aside her vow to defend against wickedness, a disillusioned Maud turned her back on the Order of Saint Kilda four years ago and struck out on her own. Then two of her former shield-sisters arrive in town town, hell-bent on dragging her back into the fold, and Maud’s past and present collide.

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Review: Lost and Found

Title: Lost and Found
Author: J. Holland
Series: – –
Genre: F/F Romance/Asexual Romance
Length: Novella
Available: Now

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Nerissa has always been fascinated with humans, but when her seal skin goes missing, she’s trapped in human form—which is way more human that she wants to be.

Desperate to find the missing trunk that holds her skin, she winds up at Lorelei’s bakery and soon finds herself drawn to the other woman. Lorelei offers Nerissa a place to stay, and friendship soon turns to further possibilities—until the true whereabouts of the missing seal skin threatens to tear them apart.

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Review: In Ageless Sleep

Title: In Ageless Sleep
Author: Arden Ellis
Series: – –
Genre: F/F Sci-Fi Romance
Length: Novella
Available: 12th April

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Mal is a spy, a misanthrope, and a coward; growing up in the brutal Reaches has taught her that honor is a quality best left to the dead. Her latest mission: to hijack a cryo-ship carrying the brilliant daughter of the Sovereign King, and deliver her straight into enemy hands.

But when a vital component of the ship’s cryostasis system malfunctions, the only person who can keep the unconscious passengers alive is the woman Mal was sent to kidnap. Alone together on a ship of silent sleepers, Mal must remember that she and Aurora are enemies—or risk them becoming something much more dangerous.

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